UCLA Bruin Marching Band invigorates crowds at games
By Patricia Guzman
Oct. 15, 2009 11:09 p.m.
It is nearly unavoidable hearing the faint melody of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band in passing the Intramural Field on a late afternoon. This year, the marching band is preparing three differently themed field shows ““ western, jazz and classical ““ to be performed during halftime at football games this season.
The UCLA Bruin Marching Band, which performs at the Rose Bowl Stadium for crowds of up to 90,000 people, prepares for its field shows weeks prior to the school year during an intensive band camp. With the goal of entertaining massive audiences, staff members and directors meet the preceding spring to brainstorm possible field-show themes and musical pieces that will appeal to the crowd.
“We have essentially all of the staff together with the directors, and we talk about what we want to do and how popular (songs) are, if we have done them in the past. Everything is taken into consideration,” said Keith Kupper, a fourth-year psychobiology student and one of the band’s drum majors.
Deciding on themes ahead of time allows the band adequate time to rehearse and make changes the summer before the academic year begins.
“We have two weeks of band camp before school starts, where rehearsals are basically from 9 to 9. Rehearsals run really late, but actually, practice isn’t too demanding,” Kupper said.
During the school year, the band practices for two hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in preparation for games on Saturday, Kupper said.
Last Saturday, the band performed its western show at the Rose Bowl Stadium during the halftime of the Oregon game. The show featured four main songs: “Silverado,” “Wild Wild West,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Magnificent Seven/Ghost Riders.”
“We actually had two drum majors going around with lassoes, and we lassoed a USC Trojan on the field, so that was pretty funny,” said another of the band’s drum majors, David Cho, a third-year economics student. “I think we had a good response when we lassoed the Trojan. It wasn’t so crazy, but still, it reminded people that we are going against USC, and we still have this rivalry thing going.”
Field shows play an important role in heightening the crowd’s morale and setting the tone for the game at hand as well as for future games.
“In hyping up people, the show can really have a huge impact on them. Other than that, it’s all for fun. That’s why we have different shows at every game ““ so we don’t bore people out,” Cho said.
In addition to the western show, the band will be performing jazz- and classical-themed shows, featuring songs such as “El Toro Caliente.”
“I’m looking forward to the classical show a lot because I think that is the one we’re doing at the USC game,” said Anthony Barbir, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student and Color Guard captain. “It’s either going to be (the classical) one, or it’s going to be the jazz show or a combination of the jazz and classical show, but it depends on how much progress the band and Color Guard make by that point.”
Each field show is essentially performed only once, meaning the UCLA Bruin Marching Band and Color Guard have several shows left in the year. Kupper explained the process behind making the elaborate and large-scale field shows possible before the season commences.
“Usually we learn the shows, like how to march it, and then we will play, and our director will record the song and play it through the loudspeaker, so we can kind of get the feel for marching to the song,” Kupper said.
The UCLA Bruin Marching Band works intensively throughout the year, progressively adding elements to its show until it comes together with both music and choreography.
“I feel like for the most part, it’s coming together pretty well, and I’m excited because all of the arrangements by our director, Gordon Henderson, are really phenomenal,” Kupper said.
As the season unfolds, so will the UCLA Bruin Marching Band’s many field-show surprises, while the faint melody of rehearsals remind the UCLA campus about the big USC game around the corner.
